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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056977">Brothers In Arms</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid'>dralexreid</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dr Piper Bishop [29]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Criminal Minds (US TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:48:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,796</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27056977</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dralexreid/pseuds/dralexreid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dr Spencer Reid/Dr Piper Bishop</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Dr Piper Bishop [29]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1972852</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Brothers In Arms</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Piper yawned as she headed up to the conference room with Emily. “Late night?” Emily asked her, chuckling softly.</p><p>“Very. Finished all my paperwork last night.” Piper yawned again as she finished the flight of stairs only to be pulled back by Emily.</p><p>“You finished all of it? Piper, we got back yesterday afternoon.” She nodded sleepily. “Did you get any sleep?” Piper just waved her off, saying she was fine as she refilled her cup and took her usual seat between Emily and Spencer. She couldn’t help another yawn as she viewed the case. 3 cops were dead in Phoenix, all shot in the neck, all missing their badges. The killer was taking trophies, as Rossi pointed out and it was likely it was a serial killer rather than gang violence. Yet the officers in the department deigned to disagree. It wasn’t unusual, as Piper explained to Emily, for the department to unite as one in their fear of being attacked. So, she wasn’t surprised, either by the passive aggression shown by the captain’s second, or the blue wall of resistance that Penelope described.</p><p>“So why kill police officers?” Piper proposed to the team as she sat perched on a table.</p><p>“More like, why not? Criminals, gang members, academy washouts, teenagers, and that’s just a start. I mean, the list of people who have a problem with police officers is a long one,” Spencer scoffed, and Derek stared at his sneakers.</p><p>“The victims were shot in the neck, so the unsub knew they’d be wearing body armour,” he spoke softly. “And he used a DUI checkpoint. I mean, both incidents show an active understanding of police procedure.”</p><p>“Yeah, which narrows it down to anybody who watches TV,” Rossi scoffed.</p><p>“What about the gang-banger angle?” Emily asked Lieutenant Evans who had been standing stiffly in the corner.</p><p>“Does it matter?”</p><p>“Yes, it matters to us, Lieutenant,” Emily said, standing up. “You know this city and it’s gangs better than we do. We’d like to hear your theories.”</p><p>“Okay, Twelves has a captain. Street name Playboy. Vice broke up a drug ring. Shot his brother, DOA. Playboy thought he would kill us all.”</p><p>“Well, it is a pretty strong motivation, but your commander said the dashcam only showed one attacker, right? Most ‘bangers will bring some back-up just in case,” Derek added, crossing his arms.</p><p>“Well, Playboy runs the toughest crew in town. He’s not ‘most 'bangers.’”</p><p>“Well, you said the dashcam only showed one attacker,” Rossi thought aloud. “Why show your face at all?</p><p>“Because he had to. He wanted to take them both out at the house, but they broke protocol,” Derek answered. “Rodriguez approached the house by himself.”</p><p>“Wait a minute,” Evans stepped over, straightening himself. “Are you telling me they screwed up?”</p><p>“No, Lieutenant, I’m saying that they split up, forcing the unsub to take them out separately, one here at the house and one at the car,” Derek spoke placatingly.</p><p>“The front unit’s empty,” Hotch noted. “He could have set himself up there and waited. The element of surprise was on his side.”</p><p>“Choice of the neighbourhood was deliberate,” Spencer added. “Neighbours around there are used to hearing gunfire. They’ll blame it on the gangs, and so will the police.”</p><p>“In which case, this guy planned his attack,” Piper thought aloud. “Lieutenant, why were they at the house?”</p><p>“Reported domestic violence incident,” he muttered darkly.</p><p>“So, he’s a bait-killer. Doesn’t care about who it is either, so long as they’re officers.”</p><p>“What makes you say that?” Evans said; bitterness threaded into his voice.</p><p>“Because he had no control over who responded to the DV report. Only that a cop would be there,” As Hotch told Emily and Derek to go to the crime scene with Evans, Piper started pacing.</p><p>“What’s going on up there?” Rossi asked her as he gripped her shoulders gently.</p><p>“He understands police procedure, he shoots them instead of physically attacking them, he’s deliberate and measured.”</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“It’s too calm. Think about it, cop-killers are almost always fuelled by some kind of hatred whether it be for authority or the officers themselves. I don’t see that hatred in these kills.” Piper and Rossi looked back at the board, shaken from their thoughts as Spencer and Hotch came in with the dash-cam video. Rossi and Piper watched as the shooter killed Kayser, then leaned over his body for longer than it would take to simply take a badge. Something about the scene seemed familiar to her, but she just couldn’t place it. </p><p>While the others grabbed their things to head to their hotels, Piper stayed back, poring over the case details. Lieutenant Evans noticed her alone, pacing as she tapped her whiteboard marker on her head. Shaking his head, he walked in. She turned around; a troubled smile pasted on her face. “Lieutenant, what can I do for you?”</p><p>“Shouldn’t you, uh… be with your team…back at the hotel?”</p><p>“Can’t sleep,” she retorted before pulling out the still from the dashcam footage. “Can you do me a favour?” she asked before chuckling at the lieutenant’s confusion. “Could you just lie down, pretend you’ve been shot?” He obliged but asked why as he looked up at her from the carpeted floor. “Something about this unsub is familiar to me, I just don’t know what.” She squatted besides Evans, looking at him before swiping his badge. “He takes the badge,” she said as twisted the badge, “but then what? He watches them die?” Piper straightened as Evans got up and she threw his badge back at him.</p><p>“So, what does that mean?” She tapped her chin with the marker and glanced back at the lieutenant.</p><p>“Suggests he’s a sadist, maybe even a god complex. Maybe has a menial job, somewhere he’s overlooked constantly. He shoots,” Piper turned around, pointing a finger gun at his neck, “probably because he can’t physically overpower him. You have the autopsy report?” While the lieutenant and Piper finished poring over the report, the team had returned to the station.</p><p>“Anything new?” Hotch asked him as Spencer stumbled in behind him, yawning. Piper held in a laugh at his fluffy hair framing his face as he blinked sleepily at her.</p><p>“We figured if he’s lingering by the body, he’d probably a narcissistic sadist but other than that, nothing. Oh, there is one thing that doesn’t add up. Autopsy report swabbed for prints, they found prints around Kayser’s neck,” she updated as Derek and Emily walked in, somehow still fresh-faced.</p><p>“His neck?” Spencer’s face mirrored Hotch’s confused expression. “What does that mean?”</p><p>“Narcissism? He wants to feel responsible for what he’s done,” Spencer suggested, rubbing his eyes. <em>Even half-asleep, he’s as smart as ever. And cute. </em>She scolded herself and snapped her attention to the lieutenant’s radio.</p><p>
  <em>“Officer down, 106 east broadway road. Copy that, officer, calling for back-up. 1099, code 2. Repeat, 1099, code 2, 106 east broadway road.”</em>
</p><p>“Morgan, Prentiss, go with Evans, now.” Piper rubbed her face as they left and slammed her marker on the table before storming out. Spencer tried to follow but was blocked by Hotch. “Give her some room, Reid. And get yourself some coffee, please.” But even Hotch couldn’t stop Rossi as he followed Piper. Spencer could only watch as Rossi held her, rubbing circles on her back.</p><p>^-^</p><p>As Emily talked to the first responders on the scene behind flashing lights, Derek moved over to the surviving cop next to Lieutenant Evans who was comforting his fellow cop. “We knew he was out there, he still managed to set us up.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Derek offered.</p><p>“I watched my partner die, and I couldn’t do anything to save him.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, Ron,” Evans slapped his colleague on the shoulder before squeezing it gently. “Playboy’s going to pay for this.”</p><p>“You saw Playboy there?” Derek asked, a little confused.</p><p>“No, but—”</p><p>“We all know he did it, Agent,” Evans explained exasperatedly.</p><p>“No, we don’t,” Derek said pointedly. “Lieutenant, you think I don’t know how bad you want this guy? I was a uniform just like you. I saw a lot of cops go down. Hell, before that, I watched my father get shot. He was killed doing his job, a cop’s job, so don’t think I don’t know.” Derek said to Evans before addressing Ron Mercer. “Officer Mercer, what happened when you got the call?”</p><p>“Nothing special. Report of an aggravated assault. We were on it.”</p><p>“This your regular beat?”</p><p>“We were additional tonight, added because of the shootings.”</p><p>“Did you get a look at the guy?”</p><p>“Nothing. I was too damn scared. I’m still scared.”</p><p>“You’re not the only one.”</p><p>“My partner’s family. What am I going to tell them?”</p><p>“The only thing you can tell them– that we’re going to catch the guy who did this. But the right guy,” he added, pointedly to the lieutenant as he gently squeezed Officer Mercer’s arm and walked away to join Emily.</p><p>“Anything?” she asked him.</p><p>“We can forget cross-referencing. These guys were just assigned this beat.”</p><p>“So we were right after all. This isn’t personal. Using 9-1-1 calls as a lottery, picking cops at random.”</p><p>“Except there’s nothing random about the shootings. Each scenario has been increasingly complex.”</p><p>“He’s enjoying the hunt. Taking the time to set his victims up and luring them into his net. It’s become as important to him as the kill itself.”</p><p>“And this last one he executed while the FBI and every cop in the city were after him.”</p><p>“And the press… Their attention’s feeding him. Playing right into the unsub’s need to feel superior.”</p><p>“The press is not our only problem.” Emily looked pointedly at the congregation of cops behind him.</p><p>“These guys are still trying to pin the shootings on Playboy.”</p><p>“I have a feeling we’re not going to be able to hold them off much longer. We should get back, update the team.”</p><p>^-^</p><p>Piper juggled an apple in her hands as she reviewed the evidence with Spencer, looking up as Lieutenant Evans entered the precinct with a young bald man wearing a white tank top and an unbuttoned plaid overshirt with low-hanging jeans. Spencer and Hotch followed her gaze and she watched Hotch pull the captain aside covertly and they followed. “What’s going on?”</p><p>“What’s going on is my officers are being shot in the streets and crucified by the press. That’s what’s going on.”</p><p>“So, you’ve arrested the wrong person?”</p><p>“I brought in a viable suspect for questioning. I had to do something.”</p><p>“Commander, I understand the pressure you’re under, but doing this could undermine the investigation.”</p><p>“Bringing in another suspect draws attention away from the real unsub,” Piper added.</p><p>“If he starts to feel inadequate, he may strike sooner just to prove himself,” Spencer continued, moving for Derek to join the group.</p><p>“It’s also possible accusing one of their members could antagonize local gangs,” Rossi added, “which is the last thing your officers need to be worrying about right now.”</p><p>“All right, look. I told you guys I was out on a limb here, so unless you have a suspect…”</p><p>“Hotch. Since we’ve got this guy, why don’t we see if we can use him? You mind if talk to him?”</p><p>“Be my guest,” the commander said as he motioned towards the interrogation room.</p><p>“Commander, I appreciate your letting Agent Morgan join the interrogation, but I promise you, this is not our unsub. The real killer’s still out there,” Hotch warned and beckoned Piper to join him in observing the interrogation. Piper watched Lieutenant Evans perched on the table, Playboy handcuffed to the desk and Morgan trying to get on his good side.</p><p>“Good ole’ good cop, bad cop routine huh?” Piper joked, earning a smirk from Hotch, albeit brief. “Guess even TV can get some things right.”</p><p>Derek swung the chair around, straddling it as he addressed Playboy. “I know you didn’t do it, Playboy.”</p><p>“So why you dragging my ass in here, then?”</p><p>“I said <em>I</em> know you didn’t kill those cops, but he doesn’t,” Morgan said, pointing to Evans who kept a neutral smile on his face. “And they don’t. And trust me, they don’t care, man.”</p><p>“But you do. Oh, you care about me.”</p><p>“I don’t give a damn about you.” Piper smirked from the other side of the glass as Morgan tried to build rapport. “Tell you what I do care about. Catching the killer.”</p><p>“I told you, I didn’t do it.”</p><p>“But I think you know who did.”</p><p>“No way, man. It wasn’t one of us.”</p><p>“Okay. I’ll give you that. Whoever did do this ain’t no 'banger. But he’s been working your hood pretty tough, though, huh? Without your say. He’s making you look real suspect, Playboy. Causing you nothing but trouble.”</p><p>“He won’t last long, then.” Derek chuckled.</p><p>“Come on, man, look around you. From where I’m sitting, it looks like he’s doing all right so far. I mean, if I’m you, I’m thinking I want this guy gone for good. What you think?”</p><p>“Yeah. You know so much. Who is he?” Playboy shrugged as he glanced at Morgan.</p><p>“Probably somebody you’d least suspect. Probably wouldn’t even think twice about him 'cause he really don’t look all that dangerous. Well, at least not on the surface. But he gets real violent.”</p><p>“Well, we all violent.”</p><p>“No, no, no, not like this, man. This cat goes from cold to hot in a heartbeat, nothing in between.” Morgan explained, clicking to emphasise his point. “Takes everything real personal. Thinks everybody’s trying to put him down, so he’s always looking for a fight, even if he knows he’s going to lose.”</p><p>“So, he’s stupid.”</p><p>“Maybe. But he’s aggressive. Think, man. You give me something, maybe I get you out of all of this. He’s white. He’s older than you, not by much. And he works alone. You know somebody like this, I know you do.”</p><p>“There was this guy… He was white. He killed me lieutenant a couple of months ago.” Playboy murmured, pulling up a tattoo of a cross gravestone, underneath inked across his skin was ‘RIP Bobby Q’</p><p>“Bobby Q.”</p><p>“Yeah. He was like my brother.” Evans snorted, scratching his neck.</p><p>“Yeah, your brother was a junkie, so was Bobby Q. I see the similarity,” Evans taunted. Piper was about to smack her forehead when Playboy leapt out of his seat, lunging at the Lieutenant before being pulled back by Derek. When he’d settled, Playboy continued.</p><p>“Well, I told the cops it wasn’t a gang thing. They didn’t believe me.”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s because you always tell us the truth, don’t you, Playboy?”</p><p>“I’m serious, man. If I knew his name, he’d be dead already.” But before Morgan could ask his next question, Hotch popped in, beckoning the detective and the federal agent outside.</p><p>“There’s been another shooting,” Piper told them as she kept listening to Garcia’s voice on the other line, and Evans just sighed.</p><p>“I’ll cut him loose.”</p><p>“No. not yet. Hotch, this guy knows something,” Morgan pleaded and Hotch relented.</p><p>“All right, keep working on it. Piper, anything?”</p><p>“They have the shooter cornered in an apartment building downtown. Garcia’s texting us the address now. We should go.”</p><p>“Morgan, have Dave stay with you on the interrogation, Piper, stick with Spencer, keep working on the profile. We’ll deliver it when Emily and I get back from the scene.” Piper nodded as she slipped her cell in her pocket and left. While she kept scribbling on the whiteboard, occasionally chucking the odd paper ball at Spencer for making a terrible joke, Hotch and Emily ran under the cover of the SUVs to the lead detective. They watched men surround the building, dividing into pairs as they infiltrated the building. On the side, a young police officer lay bleeding on the ambulance stretcher, barely alive. After talking to the sergeant, Hotch and Emily called the precinct.</p><p>
  <em>“What? He’s not our guy?”</em>
</p><p>“No. There was no radio call, shot one in the head, another in the shoulder and it was a blitz attack. Can’t be him.” Emily turned as she heard a crashing of glass.</p><p>“<em>Em…You still there? What was that noise? You okay?” </em>Emily barely registered Piper’s bombarding questions as she watched the burly tattooed man fall down 5 storeys, skull cracking over the stone pavement.</p><p>“The guy’s dead.”</p><p>“<em>Who, the officer?”</em></p><p><em>“</em>No, the banger.”</p><p>“<em>Jesus. Media’s gonna be in a frenzy about this.”</em> Emily scoffed.</p><p>“You bet. Chief of Police and the mayor are gunning hard on this department. If they nail this guy for the murders, it becomes an easy closed case.”</p><p>“<em>Kay, well. Stay safe and get back soon. Oh, wait, I almost forgot. Derek got something out of Playboy. His lieutenant, Bobby Q, shot in the neck with a .35 Magnum. Same MO.</em>”</p><p>“Thanks, Pipes. I’ll let Hotch know.” She slipped the cell in her pocket as she walked over to Hotch, relaying Bobby’s fate.</p><p>Piper slid the phone on the table and ran her hands through her hair as Spencer got off the phone with Hotch. “Commander’s giving us four hours to catch the real unsub.”</p><p>“We need a break. If we can find something worthwhile in all this…” she gestured wildly at the mess in front of them. “We can bargain for more time.” Piper turned to Morgan who had just entered the room. “Derek, you think you can convince Evans to get you Bobby Q’s file?” Derek nodded grimly and walked back out as Spencer jumped off his perch to look at Dawes’ medical report and Piper started dialling Garcia for the details on the dead banger.</p><p>Derek walked over to the bullpen where Evans was being congratulated. He called out to him, asking for a few minutes to pull a file on Playboy’s lieutenant. “It’s over, agent. We got the guy.”</p><p>“No, we didn’t.”</p><p>“What, because he turned out to be a gangbanger after all? Let it go. You guys made a mistake. You guys were wrong. So was I. No harm, no foul.”</p><p>“No offence, Lieutenant, but we’re not wrong. The killer is still out there, and more cops will die.” Derek sighed, pausing before he moved. “You heard what Officer Mercer said. His partner got shot. He couldn’t do anything to save him. Do you want to feel like that when another one of your guys does get killed? Or do you want to know that you did everything you could to try to keep it from happening again?” He saw Evans sigh reluctantly and move over to the computer’s file system as he irritably took off his bulletproof vest.</p><p>The team reconvened in about a half-hour with Spencer returning from the ME. “Ballistics aren’t back yet, but the preliminary ME reports suggest the weapon used to kill Officer Beck wasn’t a .357.”</p><p>“And I spoke to Garcia,” Piper continued, leaning on the file cabinet next to her. “Beck arrested Diablo twice on drug charges, last time sent him away for 10 years. Diablo was just released on parole last week.”</p><p>“So, Diablo went after the cop who put him away assuming it would be lumped in with the other murders,” Derek put together. “The unsub would take the fall.” Spotting Evans walking over, he cried, “Hey, Evans, you find anything?”</p><p>“Well, I pulled up that information on Playboy’s lieutenant, Bobby Q.” He handed the file over to Derek who raised an eyebrow at the few resources inside.</p><p>“There’s not much here.”</p><p>“And you’re thinking Playboy was right, that we didn’t pay enough attention to the case.”</p><p>“Did you?” Piper asked carefully.</p><p>“Look, the majority of homicides in this city most times we spend time and resources following trails that all lead to the same place anyway.”</p><p>“You just assumed this was just another one of those trails.”</p><p>“Being in a gang shortens your life expectancy, so it’s no big surprise when a gangbanger winds up dead.”</p><p>“Same thing could be said about being a cop,” Spencer spoke as Derek passed the file over to Piper. “The job involves a fair amount of risk, so a percentage of untimely deaths is practically inevitable.” As Piper started pinning up the CSI photos, Piper continued prodding Evans and Derek.</p><p>“The MO is the same as our unsub’s. Did, um, Playboy tell you if the killer took a trophy?” she mumbled incomprehensibly through the pin carefully held in her teeth. Dropping it in her hand, she elbowed a smirking Spencer and repeated the question.</p><p>“Oh, he said Bobby’s necklace was stolen,” Derek answered and Piper nodded in response before Evans piped up.</p><p>“Yeah, that’s in the report. We figured the killer stole it to pawn it off.”</p><p>“Yeah, or as a souvenir.” Rossi scoffed.</p><p>“Fits the signature. He built up to this. We need to go further back.” Hotch said as he dialled Garcia. “Garcia, can you pull everything in the phoenix area that matches the same MO as our unsub, not just police officers?”</p><p>
  <em>“Okay, so I’m searching homicides in Phoenix in, what, the last 2 months?”</em>
</p><p>“Make it three.”</p><p>
  <em>“You got it. A bouncer at a bar in downtown Phoenix, Mickey Reese. Weapon’s a .357 magnum. It says here the victim was wearing a ballistic vest. Apparently, they don’t serve Shirley Temples at this establishment.”</em>
</p><p>“If the bouncer was wearing a vest, that could be how our unsub developed his MO. Send us everything you’ve got.”</p><p><em>“Doneskies. P.G. out!” </em>Spencer stepped closer to Piper as he gazed at the board, trying to ignore the fresh smell of lavender.</p><p>“So, we have gangbangers, bouncers and cops. All pretty tough targets; victims capable of defending themselves,” Derek noted.</p><p>“As the unsub’s sense of power escalated, so did his confidence, leading to bigger and more difficult prey,” Rossi added.</p><p>“That makes sense. Risky deaths would increase the unsub’s feeling of superiority,” Piper agreed.</p><p>“Same thing with using a .357 magnum. It would make him feel powerful,” Spencer continued.</p><p>“Cops are at the top of that list,” Emily hummed. “High profile, always on alert, and they’re gonna make headlines.”</p><p>“‘Cept killing a gangbanger isn’t easy. They’re always armed, travel in packs,” Derek explained.</p><p>“The bouncer’s the earliest,” Piper realised. “Simple attack, no carefully thought out plan or bait, could have been his first victim.”</p><p>“We need to figure out where their paths crossed,” Hotch announced before ordering Rossi, Morgan and Evans to investigate the bar. A few hours and about a dozen coffees later, Hotch and Prentiss left to go to the fight club Evans sent them and Piper yawned as she scrolled through footage from the bar. Spencer noticed from his perch on the table.</p><p>“You okay?” Piper blinked at him wearily, taking a few minutes to process the question before humming a yes.</p><p>“This has got to be the most boring movie I’ve ever watched. And I watched Fight Club so… that’s saying something.”</p><p>“Wait, you didn’t like it? Morgan dragged me to the theatres when he found out they were showing them again.” Piper laughed.</p><p>“Did you?”</p><p>“No…but I’m me,” he shrugged at her tired, smiling face. “I watch documentaries and foreign films.” Piper’s smile softened at him.</p><p>“I love foreign films. My mom used to watch them all the time.” She hugged her knees as she spoke softly, just loud enough for him to hear. “When I was about 4 years old, she sat me in her lap and we watched The 400 Blows, which incidentally is a misnomer considering the original title is a French idiom, roughly translating to ‘raising hell’. Anyway, I didn’t understand a word of it, but I’d always ask her to watch it with me, over and over again.” She chuckled. “Just to see her happy.” Spencer smiled, moving to the floor to sit next to her.</p><p>“My mom read to me all the time as a kid. Margery Kempe’s her favourite.” Piper smiled and lay her head on his shoulder as he spoke. “That’s my happiest memory with her. Just us, in her room, her reading about things I didn’t even understand yet. From love to—” Piper’s slight snore interrupted him. He smiled, letting her use him as a pillow despite his shoulder going numb in a few minutes. Instead, he took the tablet from her hands and spun the footage. Soon enough, he was fast asleep too, his head resting lightly on hers until she woke, breathing heavily and clutching at Spencer’s hand, sighing in relief as he still snored lightly.</p><p>Meanwhile, Derek and Evans took the lead as they instigated the raid into the basement, Emily, Rossi and Hotch following close behind. “Ain’t breaking no laws here, Officer,” a pale, skinny man with a bloodstained face announced. “Agents, no matter what it looks like…”</p><p>“I think he’s trying to let us know they have to right to be idiots,” Emily scoffed.</p><p>“They do, but not here,” Evans agreed. “Listen up, folks. This warehouse is not private property. It is owned by the city, which means… Y'all are going to jail. Pack 'em up, let’s go.”</p><p>“We ain’t hurting nobody, except maybe each other.”</p><p>“Yeah, I feel you, but we’re still taking you in.”</p><p>“Unless you want to answer some questions and make all this go away,” Derek offered.</p><p>“So, ask me.”</p><p>“You know this man?” Emily asked, holding up a picture of Mickey Reese.</p><p>“Yeah. Boom. I heard. But I didn’t kill him.”</p><p>“No, but someone who came here did.”</p><p>“No way. Boom could take all of us.”</p><p>“We aren’t looking for a tough guy.”</p><p>“The man we’re looking for probably lost every fight. He came in here trying to be a man. But he failed. Guy went down easily. Maybe even in his first fight. He probably reacted poorly to that. To the point where you and your boys, you ridiculed him. All this led him to pick up a gun,” Derek described, seeing recognition register on the man’s face.</p><p>“There was a guy. Called himself ‘Animal.’ Lost every fight, but he kept coming back, getting in Boom’s face, calling him out. Most guys lose big, they run home, tail between their legs. This one freaked.”</p><p>“What’s Animal’s real name?”</p><p>“There are no names here. Just nicknames. Like me. I’m Beanie.”</p><p>“Well, what do you know about this Animal? Anything at all?”</p><p>“Nothing. That’s the way it works, you know. The first rule of fight club.”</p><p>“How about a description? Scrawny, white trash. Thought he’s a whole lot tougher than he is.”</p><p>“Get him set up with a sketch artist,” Evans ordered. “Beanie…let’s go.”</p><p>“So, what do we do now?” Derek asked and Emily turned to Hotch and Rossi</p><p>“We don’t have a lot of choices. Based on his escalating timeline, this guy’s about to strike again soon,” Emily warned. Hotch nodded, pulling out his cell to call Piper.</p><p>Piper picked up her cell, raising it to her ear as she watched Spencer snore from her seat at the table. “A press conference…yeah, I think she should be here somewhere…mhmm…Hotch, I’ve watched the footage like 12 times, I’m not getting anything,” she said, rubbing a hand over her face as she leaned back in her chair. “He baits him with public urination, then shoots him twice and one last time to the neck before he lingers again.” She tilted her screen as she kept talking. “He’s lingering to close his hand around the other guy’s neck, again the narcissism…if you think it’ll work…yep, okay.” Piper chucked a paper ball at Spencer’s head and left to go find Jordan so she could organise a press conference for them before they delivered the profile. As the team convened in the precinct in front of the gathered department, Jordan marched in, tuning the channel to the live press conference from earlier.</p><p>
  <em>“Earlier today, the Phoenix Police Department announced the suspect responsible for the deaths of 5 Phoenix officers had been caught. That is not the case. The killer is still at large. There have been quite a few mistakes made over the course of the investigation, mistakes that could have been avoided. As a result of this, the FBI is officially taking charge of the investigation. We have established a tip line, and a sketch of the suspect is being released to the press. We encourage anyone with any information about the shooter to contact us immediately.”</em>
</p><p>“The man we’re looking for is a narcissist and a psychopath desperate to prove his masculinity,” Piper started, her gaze sweeping over a sea of blue uniforms. “He does this by going after high-risk targets like gang members and police officers.”</p><p>“Because he’s a narcissist, this unsub will be following the investigation closely,” Emily added.</p><p>“By pretending to take over the investigation, we’ve put ourselves above the local police,” Spencer continued. “thus suggesting that we’re tougher to take out, and issuing the unsub a challenge that he won’t be able to ignore.”</p><p>“And painting a target directly on agent Hotchner’s back,” Rossi provided as Jordan left to attend the tipline.</p><p>“All the attacks, with the exception of the last one, have taken place in the Twelve’s territory. This is the unsub’s hunting ground, and he’s unlikely to stray from it,” Spencer offered, motioning towards the flagged map on the board.</p><p>“Locations have multiple vanish points for the shooter, but limited access and exit routes for his victims.” Derek expanded. “We’ll be looking for a similar situation. This should happen very quickly.”</p><p>“Don’t forget– this guy managed to take out 5 cops by himself,” Rossi reminded the group. “He smart, and he’s fearless. He won’t be easy to take down.” As they finished delivering the profile, Jordan came back in with a possible address within the Twelve’s territory. Lieutenant Evans straightened, about to order his men when Hotch asked him to slow down.</p><p>“This is going to be his last stand. He’s going to want to make it count,” Hotch explained.</p><p>“Yeah, well, this time we know about it and we’re ready,” Evans said, oozing confidence.</p><p>“His trap could still work,” Derek reminded him. “15th Avenue and Gelson. What do you know about the neighbourhood?”</p><p>“It’s rough. Lots of dead-end streets, allies. Major cross street, 17th.” Evans shrugged, unsure of what they were looking for.</p><p>“Residential? Any businesses at all?”</p><p>“There’s a gas station a couple of blocks down, but that’s about it.” Nodding, Spencer ducked down to the landline on the table, ringing Garcia’s hotline.</p><p>“Hey, Garcia? Can you get us a satellite image of 15th avenue and Gelson?”</p><p>“<em>But of course, mon cher. Okay, real-time satellite imagery, loading, loading. Oh.”</em></p><p><em>“</em>What is it?”</p><p>“<em>Nothing. Doesn’t show a heck of a lot. I’ve got a 2-story apartment building, no activity of any kind, no cars out in front. Oh, wait. There’s a car down the street. No heat registering, the engine must be cool. Satellite monitoring the last 12 hours is like library quiet. A truck and 2 cars left in the a.m., nothing came in. That’s about it.”</em></p><p>“Thanks.” Hotch turned to Spencer’s annotated map. “All right, there’s a major street in front on the east side, an alley, and 2 smaller streets to the north and south right here,” Spencer dictated as Piper made the appropriate marks on the map.</p><p>“Lieutenant, Commander, I need snipers in these locations,” Hotch ordered as he pointed to each location. “Once they’re set, the bulk of the squad cars can approach from the south, and the rest of us from the east very quietly. From this point forward, everybody goes in on foot. Morgan, you and I go in first, Rossi and Prentiss behind us. Todd, Reid, I want you two manning the tip line. Bishop, you help the commander in coordinating the squad cars and man the radio. Let’s go.” The seven of them split up into their respective roles. Piper listened to the radio chatter intently while Hotch silently pulled up the SUV to the apartment complex. Morgan kicked the door down, and they cleared the house quickly, finding it completely vacated. “False alarm,” Hotch spoke into the radio and they headed back, feeling defeated again, cheated of hope.</p><p>The SUV pulled up to the precinct in clear view of the building’s windows. Hotch stepped out of the vehicle as the others made their way into the precinct. Stepping onto the concrete pavement, he walked purposefully as a man trailed him in the shadows, vehicle after vehicle. Hotch stepped forward in front of the large van obscuring the view of the man in the shadows. The man raised his pistol and lunged from the shadows. But there was nothing. Just a whiff of lavender as he felt steel tinge his lower back. “Drop. The. Gun.” A voice hissed behind him and the click of handcuffs washed a sense of doom over him as he was shoved into the precinct, steel still cold on his back, a hand gripping the back of his neck. Piper pushed him into Derek’s arms who pressed him into a holding cell. It was over, and yet Piper still noticed grim defeat etched on Derek’s face as she removed her own vest.</p><p>“You knew he wouldn’t be at the first address,” Evans chuckled as he approached Derek.</p><p>“We figured he’d wait until Hotch was alone.”</p><p>“So, the tip was a diversion.”</p><p>“Something like that.”</p><p>“Thank you. And your team.”</p><p>“No thanks necessary, lieutenant. We did it together,” Derek said, smiling with a heavy heart as he turned to help the team pack evidence and files away before leaving for their hotel together.</p><p>The next morning, Piper refrained from the SUV, noticing Derek do the same in front of her as he eyed the Cunningham family, saying she’d come along with Derek later.</p><p>Derek stood sombrely behind nearly a dozen ceremonially uniformed officers in a black suit as he felt Piper approach behind him in a dark blue dress, hair left down around her ears. “Shouldn’t you be in DC?”</p><p>“For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother,” she said, smiling softly up at him. “I’d never let you do this alone.” She squeezed his hand gently as they watched the procession. She watched as Officer Mercer led Derek up to the Cunninghams and she listened, unable to stop a soft smile spread as Derek knelt next to the little boy.</p><p>“Hey, Sam… We got the bad guy who did this. Sam, your father was a hero. Don’t you ever forget that.” Silently, they watched the procession end and as it did, they started walking back.</p><p>“You’re driving, by the way.” Piper shot at him. Derek smiled at her as she chucked the keys towards him.</p>
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